A Bookish "Nudge"

El Jefe and I are getting ready in earnest for our move. We spent Saturday going through 5 large bookshelves in our family room upstairs, filling 10 Whole Foods tote bags full of books to give away in the process.

Actually, we didn't quite finish because we ran out of bags! And yes, we are keeping as many to move to the new house as we chose for the discard pile.

I just didn't have the patience to drag them to Half Price books and wait and wait and wait for an offer. Also, my experience is the more books you try to sell them at once, the lower the offer.

So my intention was to take them to the local church-sponsored Thrift Shop. But when I saw how many there were and that they are all in great condition, I hesitated.

That's when I felt that holy nudge again. Wouldn't it be great to donate them to the neighborhood library branch that just recently re-opened after being closed several months to repair Hurricane Ike damage?

I called the library. No answer. I called again and the woman who answered told me not only would they love to have the books, but today the library was having a book sale to raise money to help pay for the repairs on the building. Would I please hurry over with the donation?

When we got there, two high school boys helped load the books on a couple of carts. Both of them commented that the books were really great.

Then one of them spotted a copy of C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (don't worry I have another copy at home!) and said, "Wow! C.S. Lewis! He's really a wonderful writer. What a great book!"

~cue theology of nudgment music~

More Theology of Nudgment

A friend from El Jefe's hometown visited us this weekend. He and El Jefe had a wonderful time reminiscing about growing up in that small town in the Texas Panhandle. We showed him around the area and took him to the Astros game on Saturday night. When he showed interest in our plans for attending church Sunday morning, we invited him to come with us before driving home, and he readily accepted.

This afternoon he called me while driving back to Dallas to thank me for our hospitality. "I really needed to hear that message from your minister," he said. " I can't tell you how much it meant to me today! I made a point of meeting your pastor and thanking him for that sermon. I'm going to start looking for a church home in Dallas now. I loved our visit and your hospitality, but that service was the highlight of my trip." (The sermon topic was Managing Expectations and the scripture was the first beatitude: Matthew 5: 3.)

And to think that it hadn't occured to me that he would be interested in coming to church with us until the Holy Spirit gave me a nudge and made me listen to our guest more carefully! I can almost hear God saying: " That wasn't so hard now, was it?"